Navajo Nation leaders say schools on their territory are better off
under their control and recently took an initial step to wrest control
of classrooms from the state.

Although it's uncertain when or whether their plan will be realized,
Navajo leaders have said they would create a department of education and
institute their own testing and learning standards, which they say are
better suited for Navajo students.

"It's never been attempted by any tribe (in Arizona)," said Leland
Leonard, director of Navajo Nation's Division of Dine Education. "The
current academic approach is a borrowed concept from BIA and the state.
We want to close the achievement gap by building our own standards.

"It would be a department equal to or better than the three where our
children attend schools," Leonard added.

State officials say they are open to that concept but transferring
control of state schools to Native American governments is a difficult
prospect, and the state may have the best education programs available
for students on reservations.

On July 19, the Navajo Nation legislators, exercising sovereign powers,
made changes to its education code that would be in place by 2017. An
11-member board and a superintendent of schools would oversee its
function.

Navajo Reservation schools are currently overseen by the Arizona, Utah
and New Mexico Department of Education, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and
in the case of parochial school, the Diocese of Gallup.

Through a new department of education, the Navajo Nation would also
establish its own curriculum, its own standards of performance, its own
test scores and an adequate yearly progress report. It would likely mean
Navajo students would not take Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards
to receive a high school diploma or even glance at the national
standardized test, the TerraNova.

However, Navajo leaders said they were not interested in assuming
financial control of the state's $140 million budget for the schools,
which educates 21,000 students, a majority Navajo. Percy Deal, a member
of the board of supervisors in Navajo County, is ecstatic about the
tribe's philosophy to exert sovereignty. What troubles him is the
elimination of Arizona standards and the high-stakes tests like AIMS and
TerraNova.

"That is to say, we have our own standards and we only learn about our
little world and we don't want our students to compete on the national
level. That is wrong." Deal said. "Our children's world, their future,
is not within the Navajo Nation. It is outside the reservation. So they
have to compete nationally."

Education of Navajo children started in 1868 when the tribe agreed to
end its wars with the U.S. government and agreed to send their children
to boarding schools run by the BIA. In the 1960s, Navajo children
traveled as far away as Phoenix or Brigham City, Utah, for nine months
to attend high school.

Tired of sending their children out of state for high school, Navajo
activists, with the help of legal services, demanded local schools.
Local control appealed to Navajo parents and the emergence of district
schools on the Navajo Nation started in the late 1950s and 1960s.

The Navajo Nation has eight large public schools, many located in urban
residential areas like Tuba City, Kayenta and Chinle.

Cyndi Thompson, a parent at Chinle Unified School District, said many
parents are unaware of the tribe's plan to consolidate all schools under
its own department of education. She is satisfied with her children's
schools but admits she overhears the community repeat, "Nihina'nitin
baa'diil dééh," or "our oral Navajo philosophy and instruction is
fading."

Tom Horne, superintendent of Arizona Public Instruction, said he agreed
to be "open-minded" about the Navajo Nation's plan and had met with
tribal leaders in June. District employees, governing school board
members and parents from Navajo district school are already inquiring
about how realistic the Navajo Nation plan is, Horne said.

People need to understand that under federal and state laws he remains
in charge of educating Navajo students at public schools, he said.

National test scores at reservation public schools fall below the 50th
national percentile mark in language arts, math and reading. Navajo
students improved on AIMS 2005, a test which was made easier to take
than in previous years.

"I'm still responsible for the academic performance of the schools. If
they (Navajo Nation) want to take over that responsibility, they have to
convince Congress to pass a law transferring that responsibility from me
to them," he said.

Leonard, former chief executive officer of the Phoenix Indian Center,
believes test scores at reservation public schools are low. That is only
one reason the tribe wants to pursue its own version of a Department of
Education. He believes Navajo-crafted curriculum, standards and testing
would benefit Navajo children.

The beauty of such a move is that school districts would be required to
teach that Navajo language as part of the curriculum, he said.

Such a move would fly in the face of Proposition 203 a voter-approved
English-only policy.

Horne said the state does not object to the teaching of Navajo language
and culture with one exception.

"Students who are not proficient in English, they must become proficient
in English so that they can compete academically," Horne said. "Once
they are proficient in English, then teaching Navajo and culture is a
positive thing. I'm only opposed to teaching Navajo to children who
speak Navajo only because that puts them behind academically."